Key Highlights From New Nonprofits Trends Report

Key findings

 

The report found that three-quarters of charity professionals say demand for their programmes has increased. A similar proportion (74 per cent) say that a desire among communities they are supporting to participate in the charity’s work has increased over the last five years.

 

Technology is key, with 85 per cent saying that it is vital to the success of their organisation. The same proportion believes technology can replace a lot of the manual tasks they carry out, to free up time to deliver services.

 

This is particularly the case with CRM tools, with around a third (31 per cent) saying such tools helped exceed their goals in managing relationships with donors.

Gaps in expertise

 

The vast majority (91 per cent) of charities already have a core CRM system or are planning to use one, but gaps in their expertise remain. Only a third of development teams are using mobile for staff or user experience.

 

Of those surveyed 45 per cent say they measure their marketing goals and 43 per cent measure their fundraising goals.

 

Three quarters (75 per cent) said how to measure and report data is a challenge and 93 per cent state lack of IT or technical staff is a challenge to their organisation’s use of new technology.

 

“Anyone who works in the nonprofit world, from board members to those in our communities around the world, can reap benefits from using today’s CRM technology to drive their mission,” states the report.

 

“As needs and expectations in the digital world rise, the world we operate in

demands nonprofits have modern technology.

 

“When adopted widely across an organization, these holistic platforms can help nonprofits ‘do more with less’. This is not just because they help staff be more productive, but because they capture and retain useful data, help analyse trends and drive coherent strategies, and help communicate with diverse constituents and communities in meaningful, personal, and impactful ways.”

 

COVID-19

 

Using technology to manage relationships is particularly important as charities meet new challenges faced by COVID-19, in particular around lockdown and pivoting support remotely.

 

“Technology allows nonprofits to reach new audiences, serve more communities, respond to new challenges, or optimize opportunities. To do this, nonprofits must embrace new tools to become the social change platform their constituents are demanding, and successfully operate with social distancing,” adds the report.

 

Fundraising campaigns

 

The 2020 Nonprofit Trends Report also reveals the importance of using new technology for communication with supporters, as more than two thirds (69 per cent) of charities say that demand for transparency around funding has increased.

 

The form of fundraising that is expected to see the biggest growth over the next two years is Mobile/SMS text campaigns, with peer-to-peer fundraising the second largest area of growth in donor campaigns.

 

Currently, email campaigns and social media campaigns are the most commonly used by charities, but they are the two areas of campaigning that are set to see the least amount of growth in the methods listed in the report.

 

By embracing technology, particularly around mobile, it’s clear that charities across the world can significantly improve how they manage their relationships with supporters.

 

Download the report to learn more